Koch blasts NY Legislature over new district lines

Thursday

Jan 26, 2012 at 12:01 AMJan 26, 2012 at 5:46 PM

I believe there is no question but that the Legislature is going to adopt maps which are going to be primarily supportive of incumbents to make sure they get re-elected," said Koch, leader of the NY Uprising group.

MICHAEL GORMLEY

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch said New York's Republican-led Senate and the Assembly's Democratic majority would be "disgraceful" if, as expected, they propose new legislative districts this week aimed at protecting their political power."

I believe there is no question but that the Legislature is going to adopt maps which are going to be primarily supportive of incumbents to make sure they get re-elected," said Koch, leader of the NY Uprising group.

Koch has maintained contact with legislative leaders during the secretive process. He secured pledges — most of them signed — by every Senate Republican and most Assembly Democrats during the 2010 campaign to reform the process through independent, nonpartisan redistricting.

The Senate and Assembly majorities wouldn't comment Wednesday.

Koch also said the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that says legislatures, not the courts, should handle redistricting all but precludes any effective veto by Gov. Andrew Cuomo or legal intervention.

The Senate's Republican majority abandoned its pledge to create an independent commission to draw new districts and instead proposed a state constitutional amendment. If approved under a lengthy process, an independent commission wouldn't be able to act for another 10 years, the next time new lines will be drawn.

"So many legislators, and all of the Republicans led by their majority leader, reneged on their pledges," Koch told The Associated Press. "To me, that's the most disgraceful."

Koch said he has no faith a constitutional reform will be pursued.

"If they reneged on the original pledge, what makes anyone think that anything they say now has credibility?" Koch said.

Common Cause, the League of Women Voters and the New York Public Interest Research Group are watching closely to see if the new lines adhere to civil rights and voting laws, or the majorities' political interests. They have long been critical of the process and have sought an independent panel to handle redistricting.

Newsday reported Senate Republicans will create a 63rd seat in Albany County, splitting a Democratic stronghold. The New York Daily News reported that the Senate GOP will also redraw a Queens district based in Flushing that would be the first district in the Senate dominated by Asian voters, one of New York's fastest-growing groups of voters.

Democratic Sen. Neil Breslin, who has represented the Albany County district for 15 years, said Republicans are creating "an illegal district" for the county, which has always been a single Senate district.

"Albany County is as close to a Senate district as you could draw, if you were drawing it properly," Breslin said Wednesday. "In a state where population losses are upstate and we're losing two congressional seats, the audacity of the Republicans to draft a district in upstate New York ... is an indication of how unconstitutional and unfair the process is."

In Queens, the Flushing-based district would consolidate neighborhoods dominated by Asian-American residents now located in several districts. The Daily News also reported that a similar plan will consolidate Orthodox Jewish voters in an altered district in Brooklyn centered around Borough Park.

Republicans have defended adding a 63rd seat as a way to avoid a potential 31-31 tie in the chamber where 32 votes are needed to pass legislation. Republicans hold a 32-30 majority and usually vote as a bloc. In the past, absences have required the GOP to postpone votes on contested bills to assure passage. One Senate seat is estimated to cost up to $1 million in salaries, staff and resources, including the senator's base pay of $79,500.

Sen. Michael Nozzolio, the majority's point person on redistricting, recently explained that calculations of voters under election laws force the additional seat, not political considerations.

"Senate Democrats have not done a good job in math in the past," said Nozzolio, a Seneca Falls Republican and co-chairman of the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research. "The constitution decides this issue ... (and) the constitution is an inconvenient truth for many."

The Assembly's Democratic majority, now 95-51, has been secure for decades. But Republicans have made inroads in the last two elections and have erased the Democrats' two-thirds, supermajority margin that was enough to override a governor's veto in the chamber without Republican support.

The majorities are required by state and federal laws to redraw districts every 10 years based on census data to keep similar communities together and to make sure racial minorities have a voice in the Legislature.

The new districts will be presented to Cuomo. He has promised to veto lines drawn to protect the majorities, although what factors would trigger that veto isn't clear.

One observer called the redistricting process as reported in press accounts "naked self-interest."

"The Rolling Stones are right and you can't always get what you want, but the Senate Republicans got almost exactly what they wanted in redistricting," said Doug Muzzio, political science professor at Baruch College. "A promise? No shame in breaking pre-election pledge."

Democratic Sen. Michael Gianaris of Queens accused Republicans of serving only their own political interest in redistricting.

"We expect their draft will be abusively gerrymandered and the strongest argument of why we need fairness and independence in redistricting will be their own plan," Gianaris said.

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